Dragon's Flight
by Batsutousai
Summary: Part 2 of the Chimera-Dragons 'Verse: The thing about living with dragons, was that they were all protective of each other, and Ed just happened to be the unknown. Maes and Riza, of course, each have their own ways of approaching the matter.


**Title:** _Dragon's Flight_  
 **Series:** Chimera-Dragons 'Verse  
 **Fandom:** _Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood_ /manga  
 **Author:** Batsutousai  
 **Rating:** Teen  
 **Pairings:** Edward Elric/Roy Mustang, Gracia Hughes/Maes Hughes  
 **Warnings:** Alternate Universe, chimera-dragon!Roy, prince!Ed, Ed's potty mouth, chimera-dragon!Maes, chimera-dragon!Riza  
 **Summary:** The thing about living with dragons, was that they were all protective of each other, and Ed just happened to be the unknown. Maes and Riza, of course, each have their own ways of approaching the matter.

 **Disclaim Her:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Arakawa Hiromu and various publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

 **A/N:** We can all debate this until the end of time, but most of the 'sources' google pulled up for me seemed to agree that a group of dragons could be called a 'flight' (though I did see some pretty fantastic other names), which is where this part's title comes from.

For everyone not reading this on FFN, this part comes _before_ that smutty one-shot, _Dragon's Tongue_. For those of you reading this on FFN, disregard everything; this is just the second fic in this series. XD

You can also read this at Archive of Our Own, , tumblr, or LiveJournal.

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-0-

"So," Maes said as he settled on the edge of the mountain next to Roy, both of them taking the chance to escape the current limitations of their human bodies, "Ed."

"Is currently back in the cave, working ridiculously high-level alchemy to make the place liveable?" Roy suggested when his best friend didn't say anything further.

"Oh? How high-level?"

Roy shot Maes an unimpressed look and huffed out black smoke in his face. "Stop fishing aimlessly and just ask your questions."

"You take a great deal of the fun out of my–"

" _Maes_ ," Roy snarled, biting back the urge to breath fire into his best friend's face; it was a much harder temptation to resist than snapping his fingers and setting him on fire had been.

Maes snorted, letting out a pale cloud of smoke, then asked, "Where did you find him?"

"Xerxes. His father wanted me to keep him in a tower."

Maes shot him a disbelieving look.

Roy shrugged, wings shifting and resettling with the motion, ignoring his own continued misgivings at the way he and Ed had first met. Even if it _had_ ended up working out wonderfully for both of them. (Or, Roy _assumed_ Ed was happy; it was hard to tell when he spent so much time slinging insults and grumbling about impossible chimerae who wouldn't listen to reason and _stay in bed_.) "Ed mentioned a habit of running away from home."

"Oh? Is that why we're freezing our arses off in the mountains?"

"I can fix that, just give the word," Roy threatened, breathing out just enough fire to lick around his teeth and tickle his lips.

Maes very obviously shifted over a bit. "I'm fine right now, thanks."

Roy shook his head and turned back to stare up at the sky; it was hard not to, after years of imprisonment. "We're up here because it's safe from _any_ persecution. Or have you forgotten we're traitors and the Führer would probably start a war to get his hands on people he could control us with?"

Maes' snarl and the shock of electricity ringing his snout proved Roy wasn't the only one of them who was maybe a little _too_ possessive of the people he loved.

"Ed did say he was interested in seeing mountains and snow, but I think he'd be far more comfortable if we'd retire to the beach, honestly; he doesn't enjoy the cold."

Maes snorted out more white smoke. "Oh, is _that_ why the first thing he did was carve that weird heating array in the wall and activate it?"

Roy was fairly certain that didn't deserve a response. Especially since Ed hadn't been the only one shivering, unable to change into a dragon form to ward off the worst of the chill. Roy or Riza might have been able to keep a fire going for the humans, but Ed never would have let them keep that up, given he'd apparently decided one of his duties was getting the three chimerae's human bodies back up to a healthy weight, a task that Gracia was more than happy to assist with.

"Well," Maes said, pitched like he was talking to himself, "I suppose being from Xerxes explains why he knows so much alchemy."

Maes didn't know the _half_ of it, because Ed hadn't done any of his clap alchemy since they'd entered Amestris. (Or, at least, not where Roy had seen.) Ed had said something about it being a secret of his family's, though, so Roy assumed that was just his way of separating himself from who he'd been born as.

"How old is he? Young, looks like."

"Eighteen," Roy admitted, didn't bother to turn and see the unimpressed look Maes would be turning on him.

" _Roy_ ," Maes said, disapproval in his voice. "He's a _kid_."

"Don't let _him_ hear you saying that," Roy muttered, because Ed had made it pretty obvious from the start that he didn't want to be treated like a child. Although, Roy didn't expect he'd had much time to ever _be_ a child, if what he'd said about how early he'd started learning alchemy and how to handle a sword had been accurate. Never mind whatever training he'd suffered through as crown prince. _And_ the whip marks on his back, which Roy didn't _dare_ ask the age of, because he was afraid he'd end up taking a day trip to set Xerxes' king on fire.

"He's _fourteen years younger than us_!" Maes snapped.

"You think I don't _know that_?" Roy snarled, barely holding back from breathing fire on Maes. "I can't help my instincts, Maes! And _he's_ the one who approached _me_."

Maes seemed to ease off a bit, at that last. "Well, at least I know you'll never hurt him. Purposefully."

Roy wasn't certain if that was in reference to who he'd been _before_ their transformation, or the way their dragon instincts left them needing to keep safe the things that were _theirs_ , no matter what.

Maes shifted a bit on his section of stone, claws digging in as easily as they would have sunk into soft dirt. "How good is he?"

Roy swallowed, remembering all too well the moment he'd realised Ed was covered in blood, _most_ of it not his own. (He still didn't have an exact explanation for what all had happened in the lab, but it was clear he'd had a bit of a fight on his hands.) "He got through one of the most heavily guarded military labs in Amestris. Alone," he pointed out, because that was really as much as he knew about Ed's abilities. Other than, you know, watching him reshape an entire _tower_ so Roy could comfortably stretch most of his snout inside and still be able to speak comfortably.

"Is he likely to pose a danger?" Maes asked.

Roy couldn't have stopped his snarl if he'd _wanted_ to.

Maes hit him with a wing. "Don't start that with me. It's a valid question; you're not the only one with someone to protect down there, Roy," he finished with a bit of snarl of his own.

Roy clamped down on his instinctual need to assure that Ed would never hurt any of them, thinking it over.

But, even taking the time to think it over... Everything he knew about Ed said he would fight to keep _all_ of them safe, even Roy and Maes and Riza, despite the beliefs about chimerae he'd been force-fed growing up; he was everything Bradley _wasn't_. "He would sooner die than watch either of them get hurt," he settled on.

Something about Maes relaxed a bit. "I'm going to trust you about this, Roy."

"He knows healing alchemy?"

Maes' eyes were smiling when he looked back at Roy. "Is that a comment on something?"

"Yes: You've got a six-year-old living in a mountain cave with lots of sharp rocks."

Maes' slowly dawning horrified look was totally worth getting a face-full of snow powder when he took off and upset all the snow around them.

-0-

Edward was snarling some multi-lingual curses at his life choices as he carved yet _another_ set of necessary arrays into one of the walls of their ever expanding cave complex, when someone said, "Edward," from behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder, only to see the blade of an akinakes pointed at him, and automatically reacted by ducking down and twisting to the side, using the momentum to swing his leg around to kick the attacker.

He recognised the wielder right before he connected, and barely managed to stop his momentum before he could kick Riza in the side, and probably do her way more damage than her body could survive, as weak as all the chimerae were. "Are you fucking _insane_?!" he shouted, fairly certain he was speaking Amestrisan. "I could have killed you! And what the fuck are you doing out of bed?!"

Riza let her arm drop to her side, something that might have been self-disgust crossing her face. "My reaction time is terrible."

"Well it is a fucking good thing mine is _not_ , then!" Edward snapped, before reaching out and taking what he recognised as his own akinakes from her before she dropped it. "Seriously, what the fuck _possessed_ you?"

Riza turned to him, her eyes gone sharp. "I don't trust you," she said, flatly honest.

Edward choked on a breath and barely kept from stumbling back a step; that had actually hurt to hear, a bit. Especially given he'd risked his own life for her freedom. "Why not?" he asked, grimacing a bit when the words came out sounding small and young.

"I don't know what you want; everyone has an agenda."

An agenda?

Edward looked down at his akinakes, the hilt and pommel so ridiculously ornate, it was a wonder she'd thought it a useful weapon at all. "I do not want to go home. That is my agenda."

"Home?" Riza asked.

"Persepolis," Edward replied, glancing up at her. When her vaguely confused frown didn't ease, he couldn't help a laugh. "Do you not know the capital city of Xerxes?"

"I hadn't realised you were Xerxesian, though it does explain some things."

Edward reached up and tugged on his hair a bit self-consciously; he'd kept dyeing it black, for those times they'd gone down into Drachma to trade for necessities, since his Xerxesian colouring would very much stand out so far from the yellow sands of the Great Xerxesian Desert. "My dependence on alchemy," he assumed flatly.

"That," she agreed, "and your preference for warmth."

Edward couldn't help but glance toward the array he'd been working on. "You are not complaining," he pointed out, because he'd spotted her taking a nap as close to one of the arrays as she could get more than a couple times.

"I'm not," she agreed flatly, before narrowing her eyes at him. "If you found yourself alone in a room with Führer Bradley, what would you do?"

"Slit his fucking throat," Edward snarled with feeling. Honestly, even if they _weren't_ alone, he'd probably make a play for the fucker's life, between Bradley condoning chimera research, what had been done to Roy, and the inhuman crimes perpetuated on the people of Ishval.

Edward had no love for Amestris' ruler, and so long as he remained free of his birth right, he didn't have to play prince for the sake of his people.

Riza smiled, then, and Edward was a little surprised to realise that she was actually quite pretty when she did. "You'll do," she decided, before holding out a hand. "Riza Hawkeye."

Edward blinked a couple times, started to realise this was the first time that any of his cave-mates had actually introduced themselves to him, even Roy. He reached out and took her hand in return, offering, "Ed Elric," as his name, as it was unlikely anyone outside Xerxes would be familiar with his mother's maiden name. (Edward had been told far too often that it had been a huge scandal, the crown prince choosing the only child of the poorest noble family in Xerxes as his bride, but even his own people had had trouble remembering the name of Trisha's family, so long they'd been the least of the noble families.)

She nodded. "Do you have a gun I could keep?"

"A _gun_?" Edward repeated, half convinced he'd heard her wrong.

She nodded again. "I'm out of practise, and I'd prefer to be armed." She glanced down at herself, grimacing. "Assuming I can even use it."

Edward opened his mouth to say no, but then he stopped, looking down at his akinakes. It wasn't a light weapon, by any means, and he knew well enough how it felt to be divested of the familiar weight of a weapon. He didn't bother wearing his in the caves, because they were safe, and he had alchemy, besides, but he could understand wanting to have _something_ nearby.

So he sighed, gave his akinakes an absent twirl, and offered, "I cannot give you any bullets, because we do not really have any to spare, unless I can manage to find some sort of useful ore deposits in this mountain."

"I would...appreciate that," Riza replied, her shoulders slumping a bit.

"But, first, please go lay back down," Edward pleaded. "I cannot even _begin_ to imagine how you are standing right now."

"Less body mass to gain back," Riza deadpanned.

Edward might have believed her more if she hadn't ended up needing his help to get back to where she usually slept under one of the arrays he'd carved.

Once she was settled, he brought her his single spare gun after releasing the magazine.

"Thank you," she said as she accepted it, the gratitude in her voice almost _humbling_.

"Of course."

As he turned away to return to his work, though, she called, "Ed?" When he glanced back at her, she was frowning a bit. "What sort of ore deposits _have_ you found?"

Edward shrugged. "Just some gold and silver," he admitted, before leaving her to choke, then let out a disbelieving laugh behind him.

Edward grinned to himself as he got back to work. Maybe, if Riza was strong enough to go walking around on her own, he'd get _her_ to come down with him when he went to trade the precious metal he'd found. Because he didn't believe the Drachmans would be _looking_ to cheat him, but westerners had odd ideas about what sorts of metal were worth killing for, and Edward wasn't quite stupid enough to walk into a village with a bag full of gold and silver without a second human at his back.

But, better than having someone he could take with him, it sounded like he'd just made another friend. And all he'd had to do was be honest about how much he wanted Bradley dead; it was a good day.

Ten minutes later, he was back to snarling curses at his work, because not even being friendly with one of Roy's friends could keep him from hating having to carve arrays by hand.

.


End file.
